As game companies struggle to stay afloat in this turbulent economy, the question arises: How much do gaming CEOs make? Unsurprisingly, the general answer is “a lot.”
Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick saw one of the industry’s largest salaries last year, receiving roughly $9 million in salary and bonuses, plus another $5.9 million from his stocks. Not too surprising coming from the publisher of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, but a little disconcerting coming from a company that posted a loss of $107 million last year.
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello took home $5 million this year despite the company posting a staggering $641 million loss for the quarter, with little relief in sight.
Close behind Riccitiello is GameStop CEO Dan DeMatteo who took home $4.9 million this year. With GameStop’s astronomically lucrative used games sales, it seems the man in charge would be due even more cash than this.
Surprisingly, Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton took home $943,847 for the year; impressive considering the company’s decision to focus mostly on budget and portable game titles. Who would’ve guessed that Cooking Mama could support an entire company?
And what of Ben Feder, CEO of Take Two, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto IV, a game that brought in $500 million in its first week? Well it looks like Take Two paid him one dollar. Not really of course, he’s paid by a private subsidiary, but his direct pay from Take Two was less than enough to buy a cup of coffee.
It seems slightly confusing that these CEOs are bringing in multi-million dollar checks while their respective companies flounder and struggle to stay afloat, but I imagine you don’t worry about that when you’re resting on your solid gold bed in your G5 jet on your way to Monte Carlo.
Source: The Game Trade Journal (Via Evil Avatar)
